CULTURAL EVENTS IN CDMX PARK RETURN TO PUBLIC CONTROL

ByMexico Solidarity

This article by Alonso Urrutia and Alma Muñoz appeared in the May 23, 2025 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier leftist daily newspaper.

EDITOR’S NOTE: On Sunday, April 6th, two photojournalists, Citlali Berenice Giles Rivera and Miguel Ángel Rojas Hernández, covering the AXE Ceremonia festival in the park were killed when an unsecured scissor-lift (weighing approximately 250kg) being used as a decorative feature fell in windy conditions and crushed them. Despite the deaths, the concert performances carried on in violation of the law. Private musical events like concerts and festivals in Mexico feature very high ticket prices (young attendees often buy the tickets on the installment plans), very low wages and poor working conditions for the workers, and super-profits for the exploitative and unscrupulous promoters, who in this case, benefited even further by using public land and resources. Recently, the British indie group Los Campesinos! cancelled their Mexico City show, which was scheduled for tonight May 23rd, when fans alerted them that the promoter was the same promotion company that organized AXE Ceremonia: “We attempted to engage in a dialogue with the promoter to better understand the events that occurred, but their response was slow and ultimately unsatisfactory, leaving us unable to work with them in good faith. They have yet to make a public statement over 5 weeks after the tragic incident.” The statement was later removed from their social media accounts, presumably owing to legal considerations, but the band assured Mexico Solidarity Media that the concert was still cancelled.

Mexico City. The federal government formalized the restoration of Bicentennial Park by reversing the concession granted to a private company in the final days of Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration. The goal is to reclaim a public space and give it a public use for cultural promotion, said Culture Secretary Claudia Curiel.

In coordination with the Secretariat of Agrarian, Territorial, and Urban Development and the Mexico City government, it was decided to restore this space for public use, providing access to culture, safeguarding heritage, and restoring public spaces, in accordance with the objectives of the National Development Plan.

During the presidential press conference, he said that the Legal Counsel of the Federal Executive Branch and the Institute for the Administration and Appraisal of National Assets participated in the process of reversing this concession.

Curiel mentioned that an inventory of the site will be conducted in June because the 55-hectare space—which was charged a million pesos a year under the Peña Nieto administration—is intended to be used for mixed purposes. The Secretary of Culture will work with the Mexico City government to ensure that it is used for public purposes rather than as a corporate use.

The decision to revoke the concession arose from the deaths of two photojournalists in Bicentennial Park during a concert.